OPEC ministers agreed on Monday to keep oil supplies at a 25-year high to hold prices in check as the U.S. winter sets in, delaying for a few more weeks a difficult decision over when to cut output, Reuters reported. OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said the cartel, which supplies more than a third of the world's oil needs, had reached agreement ahead of talks on Monday that will now simply confirm the deal and decide when next to meet. "The resolution will be to maintain our production ceiling as it is," Sheikh Ahmad told reporters before talks that began shortly after 0800 GMT and will continue until 1400 GMT. Sheikh Ahmad said OPEC's spare capacity would rise to 2.5 million bpd by the end of this year, from two million bpd previously. The cartel expects to add another one million bpd in 2006 and by 2010 its capacity will exceed 38 million bpd, Sheikh Ahmad added.
